A/N: Sorry for another long wait. I had finals this week, which drained everything out of me. But school ends this Monday, so updates will be frequent pretty soon. Enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: If I owned this show this fan fic would be a movie or episode. Because it is not means I do not own the show.

Chapter 4 Forced Help

"What's a demigod?" Danny asked Adelphos as the two walked through the dense forest.

Danny's eyes were constantly taking in the beauty of the land. Every bush, tree, and shrub was rich and deep in color. Flower patches were like seas of yellow, purple, and blue. An earthy smell hung abundantly on the air. A breeze was like a wave of sensations. The teen hadn't loved nature till now. He now saw what Sam saw in it.

"You're a demigod, Danny," Adelphos explained with a chuckle. "Maybe you are suffering some memory loss from that bump in the river. I still can't believe you took on a god."

"No," Danny stopped the centaur, "I'm no demigod. I'm just half ghost and half human."

Adelphos gave Danny a curious look. "Well, that is what a demigod is," he said slowly. "What is interesting about you, Daniel, is that you have many of the gods' powers. Most demigods only have one or two."

"Huh?" was all Danny could get out.

"Take Heracles for instance," Adelphos said.

Danny's eyes lit up. "Hey, I remember that dude," he said with excitement. "He's super strong or something like that, right?" Absently he muttered to himself, "Or was that Hercules? Greek mythology is so confusing!"

"At least not all your memory is gone," Adelphos said with a smile. "But yes. Heracles only has the strength of Zeus. He can not fly, freeze things, or shoot objects like you are able to do."

"Interesting," Danny murmured. He frowned as the sack over his shoulder suddenly became heavy as if something was in it. He slung it off his shoulder and peered inside. His sky blue eyes widened as he saw an unlit torch inside. He pulled the object out and stared at it with confusion.

"Oh my!" Adelphos said as he spotted the object. "W-where did you find that, Danny?"

"It just appeared in the bag," Danny said.

Adelphos quickly shoved Danny's hand holding the torch back into the sack. He looked around while whispering to Danny, "You shouldn't just flash that off at random. Why do you have the god's symbols in that bag?"

"I-I don't know!" Danny said. "The guy I took this bag from had stolen these things. I didn't know they were the gods' till Poseidon showed up with hands-a-waving. Which god owns this one? I'll return it as quickly as I can. I'll return all of the symbols if I have to."

Adelphos stared intently at Danny for a few seconds, letting his words sink in. He finally let go of Danny's wrist and stood back to think about what to do. Danny was in a bad situation that Adelphos didn't want to get involved in. He wanted to help the demigod out but not put his life at risk.

"This is serious, Danny," Adelphos said solemnly. "Those objects you have in that magical sack are powerful. The gods have been ready to go to war with them gone. For months they have blamed the humans and others for their absence. Returning them is not as easy as you may think."

"I can try," Danny ventured. It didn't look like he was going to get out of ancient Greece anytime soon. The best thing for him to do was try to set things straight that Vlad had made gone awry.

Adelphos sighed while giving Danny a warm smile. "Like every demigod I know, you are so willing to be brave and fend for both sides," he said.

"So you'll help me?" Danny asked hopefully.

"No," Adelphos said with a firm shake of his head. "That torch belongs to Demeter. She is not hard to find, but getting close enough to talk to her is a very difficult challenge. I am not fit to show you the way, but I know someone who, with enough talking to, will help you."

"Okay," Danny said with a smile.

Adelphos laughed at Danny's willingness. "I'll just warn you now," he said. "This person is a character."

"How bad could he be?" Danny asked with a cocky shrug.

-Few Hours Later-

"No."

"Oh, c'mon!" Danny pleaded.

The teen kept walking toward his shack-like house without giving Danny any second thought. Danny pursued with a frown planted on his face. He wasn't going to give up that easily. Plus, Adelphos had left the second he had dropped Danny off at the "helper's" house and he had no where to go. But so far the guy was refusing to assist Danny in any way.

Danny still couldn't get over the fact that the guy, Theo, was a half sphinx. As Danny followed him up to his house, he couldn't help but stare at the kid's flattened cat ears and twitching, long tail. Danny had expected someone a little bit more…normal. He hadn't seen even one normal human yet, and he had spent a few good hours in this new time period.

"I just need help finding the gods for a few days tops," Danny persisted with Theo.

Theo spun around in annoyance while saying, "The gods are dangerous. It's better to just abide by their rules and get on with your life. Leave."

With that said Theo spun back around and walked over to a wooden table right outside his shack. Lots of crumbled and fading papers were stacked up on the table. Other old instruments that Danny didn't know the name of were there too. One giant map was the center of attention there. Danny compared it to something very close to an old treasure map he would see in pirate movies.

Theo sorted through the stack of papers, his ears still flat to show his annoyance. He tried to busy himself in his life's work as Danny stood there trying to come up with words of persuasion. Theo sighed as he looked up and through his brown hair to see Danny still standing there.

"The answer is and always will be no, kid," Theo said while looking back to his map. "Now go find a portal and go back to your original time period. Ancient Greece isn't exactly a real vacation spot at the moment."

Danny's eyes widened in surprise. "How did you know that I'm not from here?" he asked. "You know about ghost portals?"

"As a demigod, I know a lot of things," Theo said with an unfriendly smile. "As a banished demigod, I know more than the average god could comprehend."

"Still bitter are we?" Danny muttered sarcastically under his breath.

One of Theo's cat ears caught the remark. He looked up at the other teen with narrowed hard, brown eyes. "You ghosts live with so many privileges in the future," he spat at Danny. "Don't go talking about me being bitter and crap with me around, kid. You've seen nothing, so I advise you to leave before you see any."

"I'm not leaving till I have someone agreeing to help me find a few gods," Danny said, crossing his arms. He had tried the nice way and pleading with this guy. It was now time to change strategies again. "Just show me where Demeter lives and I'll leave you alone."

Theo quickly looked up from his work, wonder all over his face now. "Why on earth would you want to find her?" he asked in almost a whisper.

"Um…I have her torch," Danny said as he held up the sack he was still holding.

For a second Danny could swear he saw fear in Theo's eyes. But quickly the half sphinx wiped the expression off his face and replaced it with one of stubbornness. "There is no way you are going to make me go see Demeter again."

"Adelphos said finding her was no problem," Danny said. "Apparently you're a map maker, so couldn't you just make me a quick map and show me where to go. You don't have to come with me."

"This map isn't like your maps, kid," Theo said quietly. He studied Danny with critical eyes for a few seconds, contemplating his few options.

A wisp of blue, cold air escaped Danny's mouth.

"Where are they, Theo?" a voice asked from right behind the young demigod. Theo stiffened in surprise as Danny bent to one side to see who was there. He wondered how anyone could have just appeared there. Theo's house was out in the middle of a clearing in the forest. Danny or Theo would have been able to see anyone approach…unless it was a god.

Theo deftly spun around to face the god. Danny noticed the half sphinx roll up the map he was working on behind his back and stuff it into the back of his belt. It was clear to Danny that Theo wanted to keep that map away from any god or goddess's eyes.

"Hermes, what brings you here? I didn't know I was important enough to the gods to get fan mail these days," Theo said with a smooth smile. Everything about the demigod was smooth. Danny just guessed it was because he was practically half cat.

Hermes shot Theo a mysterious smile while crossing his arms. The god looks more like an elf than a god, Danny thought. He had the pointy ears, the sharp features on his face, and an addictive mischievous evil grin. Because he was the messenger god, he was tall and strong, a perfect track and field runner. He wore the ever repetitive Ancient Greek toga like Theo and Poseidon wore.

"Where are my shoes, Theo?" Hermes asked again.

"I have no clue," Theo said truthfully. He glanced back to Danny to see him looking into his sack with surprise all over his face. Danny shoved his hand into it and then pulled out the pair of shoes with wings on the heels. Theo frowned and shot Danny a confused look. "Where did you get those?" he asked.

Hermes was literally by Danny's side in less than a second. Speed was always on Hermes's side. He glared at Danny and held out his hand to receive the shoes. Danny smiled nervously at the god and handed the symbol of power over to him.

"Thank you," Hermes said while breaking out into a smile as the shoes were placed into his hand. "I've heard that you are not the thief but plan on returning all the stolen symbols back to the gods," he said to Danny. He looked Danny up and down, quickly sizing him up. "If this is true, I could give a message to each god to expect their symbols returned soon."

"How could you possibly know that? I only said that like two or three hours ago," Danny said.

"I'm Hermes," the god said, that mysterious smile returning to his face. "I have my ways."

"Well, it's true that I didn't steal all the symbols or whatever you call 'em," Danny said. "But returning them will be the hard part." An idea suddenly came to him, and he had to resist the urge to smile wickedly at it. "I would be able to do so if Theo, here, would just show me where to go. He keeps refusing, though."

Theo's eyes widened in disbelief as he heard this. His ears flattened against his head a second later as the demigod had to keep down a hiss of anger. Instead, he gave Danny a pretend smile and asked innocently, "Where did you get that idea? I was willing to go with you."

Danny returned with the same fake smile and tone of voice. "Really?" he asked. "I don't think I got that vibe from you."

Hermes watched the exchange with a grin plastered to his face.

"Don't worry," Theo said, quickly back paddling. "I'll help you with whatever you want, Danny. How 'bout I even guide you to each god? We can leave right away. How does that sound?" It looked like smiling was going to kill Theo by now.

Danny smiled triumphantly. "That sounds great!" he said. "Thank you so much for the help!"

"No problem," Theo said.

"I'm glad you got that all settled out," Hermes said with a chuckle. He loved seeing the demigods fall over themselves to make the gods happy, Theo especially. "So that message will cost 20 coins."

"20 coins?" Theo spat back, totally changing his mood into one of disgust. "Yeah, right! I might kiss the gods' feet, but I don't have to suck up to them with cash. You can go give them their messages for 5 coins."

"Trying to bargain, are you?" Hermes asked. He shook his head with an evil smile. "Not very smart of you."

"Ten coins," Theo said.

"19 coins."

"12."

"17."

"15."

"Done," Hermes said quickly. "You're a hard one to please, Theo."

Theo ignored the comment as he grabbed a small pouch off his table. He poured a few coins out on his hand, counted them silently in his head, and then handed the coins to the god. The god counted them out loud. After saying a number, a coin would disappear. Danny watched this in pure amazement. After a year of ghost hunting and he still wasn't used to the strangeness of it all.

"Nice doing business with you," Hermes said after all the coins were counted. He turned to Danny and said, "The gods will expect their symbols in a few days. Have fun traveling." And with that said, the god was gone.

Theo glared daggers at Danny. "You are going to regret doing that," he hissed at the other demigod. He spun around and stormed into his hut, growing profanity under his breath.

"I asked nicely," Danny defended himself from outside the shack. "Plus, you will only be guiding me for a few days. And with the word out, the gods and goddesses will expect me and hopefully not attack me." He paused for an answer. When he got none he asked loudly, "Hey, shouldn't we start soon?"

Theo emerged through the doorway and threw a pile of clothes at him. "Exactly," he spat back. "But you can't go out looking like some space alien with that jumpsuit. Get dressed while I pack some food, water, and other gear." He sighed before saying, "We might need some weapons as well."

"Sounds good!" Danny said with a bright smile. He wanted to lift Theo's downcast and ugly mood and start anew. He was going to have to spend a few days with the guy. He might as well as try to make it bearable for Theo.

Theo stared at Danny blankly for a second before muttering sarcastically, "Of course."

A/N: Okay, I know I said I had a picture for this chapter, but I don't have it on DA yet. Once I do, though, I'll tell you guys to go check out my bio where I will have the link. Thanks for reading! Please review!